What if...

...a plane had jet engines

with no fuel in them?

Just a battery and fans.

A big fan up front.

Two more behind it, each with its own motor.

A small nozzle to squeeze it all into a jet.

Air comes in at 220 km/h and leaves at 345.

Six of them.

Three under each wing.

On a small plane for four people.

Would it actually fly?

I couldn't stop wondering,

so I built a lab to find out.

A fan-by-fan engine model, a wing, a battery and a full flight from brake release to landing, with the air drawn as it moves.

It flies.

259 m

of runway to get off the ground

137 km

on one charge

39 min

in the air

Landing with 20% of the battery left, like you're supposed to.

Then the numbers started arguing with me.

No stators, no flight.

Stators are the fixed vanes between the fans. Take them out and each fan piles its spin on top of the last one's until the blades stall. The plane never leaves the runway.

The small nozzle costs range.

It shoots a 345 km/h jet out of a 220 km/h plane, and the difference is energy left behind in the air. Open it up to 70% of the fan and it goes 141 km.

One fan beats three.

One fan per engine with that wider nozzle flies about 158 km. The extra fans, and the longer nacelles that hold them, cost more in weight and drag than they give back.

So the stupid idea was wrong.

Wrong in ways I could measure, which is the fun part.

Try to make it fly farther.

Check it out ↗ Read the source ↗

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